Digital marketing channels will be more critical than ever in the post-COVID-19 era. However, scaling up digital engagement and marketing operations has its fair share of challenges due to the non-availability of the right talent, cost pressures to make fresh investments, and the lack of time to implement new systems. These challenges can be addressed successfully by creating a flexible resource strategy, nurturing the right mix of talent in operations, deploying marketing automation platforms, and leveraging automation/AI in workflows.
With the lockdowns severely impacting physical collaboration, Comscore reports that Zoom.us and Microsoft Teams witnessed an 813% and 943% increase in unique visitors respectively, year-over-year (May 2019 vs. May 2020). While some companies are doing more LinkedIn and Facebook Live meetings, others have increased the frequency of webinars and virtual events to connect with their audience. Meanwhile, the marketers are turning to virtual booths to showcase their products/services and are using content marketing and other promotional offers to keep their audience engaged during the economic slowdown. Communities and organizations need to stay engaged through digital channels to thrive in these unprecedented times. These market changes and a sudden growth in digital engagement and content marketing operations demand a flexible and effective solution.
To that end, HCLTech offers a threefold solution to our clients:
- Flexible resource strategy and right talent mix: HCLTech uses business analytics, and forecasting tools to predict resource demand. During Q2 and Q3 of 2020, we successfully ramped up operations by 40% to manage the expected spike in demand for a global hi-tech company. Our resources are cross-trained to work on multiple products and divisions. Also, niche agency partners are employed to add creative and brand building support for HCLTech’s regional markets.
- Omni-channel marketing: We offer a quick-start solution combined with a consumable pricing model to onboard a marketing platform in a short period. Our clients have experienced a 25% to 75% reduction in customer acquisition costs and a 15% to 30% increase in RoI. For a leading UK-based retailer, the implementation cost was recovered through coupon redemption in their first campaign launch. Goal-based marketing automation, integration with multiple social and online media channels, advanced analytics, and deliverability monitoring are key advantages of our solution.
- Workflow automation/AI in digital operations: HCLTech implemented Blue Prism, a robotic process automation tool, to collate monthly reports from multiple digital marketing channels such as e-newsletters, whitepapers, websites, and agency reports. It saved 70% human effort and increased the accuracy of reports from 98% to 100%. The robotics process implementation has helped publish hundreds of automated reports within the first three days of every month.
Communities and organizations need to stay engaged through digital channels to thrive in these unprecedented times. In conclusion, I recommend that companies evaluate their current digital engagement and marketing strategies to pave the way for next-gen iEnterprises. Identifying a suitable, quick pilot project would build confidence for laying out a short-term strategy and setting a vision for the future.
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